Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova

Tereshkova, Valentina Vladimirovna, 1937–, Soviet cosmonaut. She was the first woman to orbit the earth, in Vostok 6 on June 16–19, 1963. She left the Soviet space program soon after and married cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev. She was president of the Committee of Soviet Women (1968–86) and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1971).